


This Is So Not A Disney Movie

by Arewegroot



Series: This Is So Not A Disney Movie [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Avengers Family, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, Multi, Pre-Slash, Team as Family, Tony Stark Feels, but well into the series, pre-James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2018-11-22 19:56:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11387295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arewegroot/pseuds/Arewegroot
Summary: High School Musical lied to him. Every Disney movie has lied to him because High School kinda sucks. Maybe with the help of a particular high school senior and if Tony ever manages to make friendly with Steve Rogers, things would be less sucky.Hit me up if you have a fic in your head but you don’t want to write it. Here’s my tumblr: arewegroot





	1. New School and Matching New Problems

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Stuck with us](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8770927) by [petroltogo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/petroltogo/pseuds/petroltogo). 



> REVISED ON 7/20/2017

Tony was the only offspring to come from Maria and Howard Stark’s nightly endeavors, causing him to be the only heir to a multi-millionaire dollar company. Since he was an only child, his parents took great care to make sure that he was kept out of the public’s eye, in hopes that it would diminish the possible death threats and kidnappings that were bound to come with the title of being the son of a well-known genius and weapons designer. But as Tony grew older, Howard and Maria realized that the public really didn't keep up with any other rich family that wasn't Kardashian related. Thank god for Kanye West; he's taking one for the team.

That is the argument Tony used when he brought up the topic of going to a public high school instead of the private school they had in plan for him.

“No one will know who I am,” Tony said. Tony had brought up the topic over dinner. He was nervous, but he had stayed calm and collected, knowing that his usual fidgety and expressive movements he usually got when trying to prove a point would only aggravate his father and make him lose his attention. “No one even knows that Stark Industries exists.”

“Many know of our company Tony,” Howard said. It wasn’t surprising that his father had taken offense to him pointing out SI was not widely known to the average person. Tony’s father had built his company from scratch with his business partner and longtime friend Obadiah Stane.

“Yes, SI is known by many politicians, investors, and higher ups in the military,” Tony said. “But the average citizen doesn't know the name of their own house representative, let alone companies like ours.”

“That might be true, Tony,” Maria said. “But how can you compare the quality of education you will get from a private school to a public school.”

“We all know that, if I really wanted to, I would have skipped several grades by now.” And it was true. He was a certified genius. He had contemplated the idea of skipping several grade levels before but the fact that he had trouble making friends with kids his own age, let alone kids older than him, always canceled that thought out. “There is no doubt that I will most certainly be the top of my class. My name and I.Q. alone could get me into MIT.”

And really that's all his parents cared about. Not because they wanted their son to get the best higher education that they could give him, but because they had an image to maintain. His father had gone and graduated from MIT and his grandfather before him (who, Tony is constantly reminded of how he, helped in the Manhattan project back in WWII). So really, the thought of sending their only son to a public school was completely absurd. Although they couldn't exactly disregard Tony’s points, their son didn't need the extra help a private school usually gives children. Tony Stark could easily fly above every single child in his class. He was already getting invitations to tour campuses of schools from the UC and CSU systems alike (as if Howard would ever let his son stoop as low as to go to any school in California).

“Alright,” Howard said, grabbing his napkin from his lap and wiped his mouth clean and then threw it gently onto his now empty plate. Which signaled for the young maid in the corner to collect it. “You can go to a public school, but the second your rank in the class drops from number one I'm sending you back to private school.”

“Understood,” Tony said, hiding his smile by finally going back to eating his, now cold, food. 

The next week, Tony found himself being dropped off by his father’s driver in front of his new high school; already starting to regret convincing his parents to let him go to a public school. Everyone was staring at the, very noticeably expensive, car, and it was starting to make him nervous. He didn’t let it show though; this was high school after all.

He simply placed his designer shades over his eyes before opening the car door and making his way towards the school.

////

Honestly, whoever thought it was a good idea to mislead children into thinking that high school was anything like what they showed on Disney Channel and every other “coming of age” movie, could go fuck themselves.

It was near the end of the third week of the new school year, and Tony was already branded as the “nerdy rich kid”. He sat alone during his lunch period and was only spoken to when his teachers forced the class to work in partners.

Tony had no idea how to feel about this.

At his old school, it was a completely different story. He didn't necessarily have friends, but he was never alone. There was always a classmate next to him; playing nice only because his name just so happened to be Stark.

“Networking.” His father had told him. “Every single one of those kids were going to take over their family business one day. So they might as well start kissing some ass right now.”

A nauseating feeling had settled in Tony’s stomach after his father had explained things. He had not needed to “network” as much as classmates had; SI was doing fine and was growing more every year. His pride might have also played a part of the reason why he didn’t.

He had been surrounded by people back at his old school; but for some reason, he had felt...lonely. At that school, Tony didn’t have anyone that really wanted to be around him because they genuinely  _ liked _ being around him. So that is why Tony had asked to be sent to a public school, where there was a greater possibility no one would know his name, giving him a chance to make actual real friends.

Sadly, life wasn’t what the Disney Empire would want you to think. There was no best friend that would turn into some sort of dog and help him solve the mystery of a buried treasure chest in the city while also helping Tony find out the real value of friendship. No, Tony was more alone than he had been back at his old private school, but strangely he wasn’t so lonely….

“Hey, what did you get for number eight?” Tony’s biology partner asked him.

Her name was probably Megan or something like that; Tony couldn’t be bothered to try to remember. She was a pretty girl with long blonde hair and was in her junior year of high school. Tony had wondered why she was taking this biology class considering it was mostly known as a freshman class. It wasn’t until he was sat next to and forced to work with her that he realized that she lived up to the blonde stereotype.

“Oxygen is an example of passive transport because it doesn’t need any required energy when moving into the cell,” Tony said, exasperatedly. “While an example of active transport is…”

Tony was a man of science. He loves science, and even though biology was not his utmost favorite branch of science, he held a degree of respect for the biology field. It was an incredible subject and Tony unsurprisingly flourished in it, but Maybe Megan was sucking the fun out of it with every stupid question she asked him.

“Hey, thanks!” Maybe Megan said. “I think I understand now.”

_ You’ll probably ask me to explain it again tomorrow,  _ Tony thought to himself.

“Yeah, no problem,” Tony said, giving her one of his not so genuine smiles.

He turned back to his own worksheet and started to work, expecting their little conversation to be over.

“Hey, so I’m having a party this Saturday,” Maybe Megan said. “Why don’t you come over?”

“You’re…you’re inviting me?” Tony asked.

Tony and Maybe Megan never hold actual conversations while in class, let alone  _ outside  _ of class. They weren’t friends and Tony couldn’t stand the girl, and he was sure that Maybe Megan felt the same way towards him. So the fact that she was inviting him to one of her house parties was a strange anomaly.

“Yeah, it’ll be fun.” She reached over and grabbed Tony’s hand and wrote her address on his hand with her pink sharpie pen. “I’ll see you there.”

She gave Tony a quick smile and zipped up her bag just a couple of seconds before the bell rang, quickly exiting the classroom. Leaving Tony to just stare down at the pink words in total shock. It wasn’t the first party he’s ever been invited to, but this was the first time it’s happened in this place. So it was understandable that Tony would be shocked still.

“Mr. Stark.” His biology teacher’s voice brought Tony back to reality. “Shouldn’t you be heading to your next class?”

“Uh…yeah sorry.” Tony grabbed his notebook in a hurry and shoved it into his bag, quickly leaving the classroom.

////

Tony’s next class and least favorite was art class. He hadn’t wanted to take the class, but his counselor had told him that it was required for him to take some sort of art for him to graduate. His choices were limited between joining the school’s chorus choir and signing up for the school’s only art class. Considering that he can’t sing for shit, Tony decided to take Mr. Coulson’s art class.

“That looks amazing.” Mr. Coulson said. “Good job, Steve.”

Tony couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he heard Coulson praise Steve for the sixteenth time this week.

Steve Rogers was the freshmen heartthrob of the school. According to all of Rogers’ fangirls and fanboys, the guy is the personification of perfection. Steve Rogers was not only a talented artist (based on how many times Mr. Coulson reminded the whole class),but he was also the JV football team’s best player. He was nice and polite to all but wasn’t afraid to argue with teachers and students alike if he thinks they are in the wrong.

_ “I don’t like bullies.” _  Steve had told them during his little introduction that Coulson had made everyone do on the first day of class. He was truly the “All American Boy”.

“Mr. Stark, that isn’t what I asked for.”

Tony sighed as his sketch book was taken away from him. He turned in his seat to look up at Mr. Coulson, who was looking at the sketches of the latest invention that had popped into Tony’s head.

“The assignment isn’t due until tomorrow, Mr. Coulson. I’ll have it done like everything else you’ve assigned so far.” Tony said but only got a hum back from Coulson.

“Starting right now and going on until the end of the end—“Mr. Coulson closes Tony’s sketch book and places it back onto the table before walking back to the front of the class—“you all will be working in pairs.”

A collective groan goes through the class.

“Quiet.” Coulson said. “I’ll be assigning the pairs based on how your differing styles could help one another with the project I have planned for all of you. Now listen for your name: Lisa and Jose, Aaron and Jamie, Tony and Steve, Marcos and Miguel…”

Tony couldn’t help the groan that came out of him. He had had a feeling that Coulson didn’t really like him but he never had anything to prove the feeling right, until now. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Steve; he had no reason to hate the guy because they’ve never really talked to one another before. No, Tony was not dreading this partner thing because he hated Rogers. No…it was because  _ Rogers _ hated  _ him. _

Of course Tony didn’t have any real evidence to back up that statement, but he knew that it was true. Every time Tony said or did something while being in the same room as the guy he would get that feeling in his gut that he would get that warned him that someone didn’t like him and his gut was never wrong. It was too well trained from when he was back at his old boarding school. He didn’t know why Steve didn’t like him (he’s never done anything to the guy) but really he wasn’t mildly surprised. It was common for people not to like him from the get-go. He was used to it…

“Steve Rogers,” The blonde introduced himself as he took his seat, as they hadn’t already known that the other existed, and held out his hand for Tony to shake. “Looks like we’ll be working with each other.”

“Tony Stark,” Tony said, shaking Rogers’ hand. “And apparently so.”

////

The rest of the week was completely,  _ horribly,  _ uncomfortable. Rogers, unlike Tony, loved the class and took it  _ very  _ seriously. That caused Steve to get super pissed off when Tony didn’t. Their arguments were stupid and very petty, and just ended with Tony having a migraine for the rest of the day. So Tony was very thankful when the week ended, and Saturday rolled in.

He originally wasn’t planning to go to Maybe Megan’s party, but Rogers’ nagging could have pushed him to alcoholism; he needed some sort of stress relief.

Maybe Megan’s house was filled with, what Tony guessed to be, upperclassman. The air was weirdly warm and sticky, and it only got worse the more Tony walked further into the crowd. The whole house pulsed and rattled; Tony not being able to recognize the music that was playing. Tony started to tap his fingers against his leg as his nerves started to flare up.

He knew no one at the party, unsurprisingly, but Tony didn’t want to show how uncomfortable he really was. So instead of heading out of the house and calling Jarvis to come and pick him up (like a normal person), he confidently walked over to the kitchen to grab a drink.

He only made it a couple of steps before he was stopped.

“Aren’t you a little young to be here?” Some guy, who was next to the snack bar, said. He was taller than Tony and was wearing a letterman jacket, even though it was the middle of August.

“I’m fourteen,” Tony said.

“You should go back home,” Letterman said. “This isn’t a birthday party.”

“I was invited to come here actually,” Tony said, glaring up at the other guy. 

“Oh really?” Letterman

“Leave him alone Philip!” A Maybe Megan said, coming out of nowhere just in time to save Tony. “This is the kid that’s helping me pass biology.”

“Oh,” Philip laughed. “This is the little genius you were talking about.”

“Yeah,” Maybe Megan giggled, throwing her arm around Tony’s shoulder. Her breath smelled of beer. “This is Tony.”

“Alright, sorry little dude,” Philip said, he turned around and grabbed one of the beer bottles that were placed there. “Here, have some.”

“Uh…thanks,” Tony said, grabbing the bottle. He unscrewed the bottle and took a gulp from it.

“Hey, looks like little genius can hold his drinks,” Philip said.

“The birthday parties I went to were pretty hardcore.” Tony shrugged, causing Philip to laugh.

Tony couldn’t help but grin. That feeling in his chest that he has had for weeks now disappeared. He hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it but…he’s been feeling really lonely, and having people talk to him and laugh with him was a weird relief.

“Told you he was cool.” Maybe Megan said. “I think we should add him to the team.”

“Team?” Tony asked.

The “team” they were talking about was a Beer Pong team; apparently they were a team member short for the tournament that was happening in Maybe Megan’s backyard.

“You know how to play right?” Philip asked Tony as the three of them walked up to their side of the table.

The foldable table was placed in the area between the house’s backdoor and the pool. The standard ten red plastic cups were placed on both sides of the table in the shape of a triangle. A crowd was formed around them in a U shaped form on the non-poolside. The smell of chlorine heavy in the air.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I know how to play,” Tony said.

“Challengers go first.” The girl from the winning team said. “Each player gets one throw.”

Maybe Megan stepped forward with the yellow Ping-Pong ball. She twirled the ball in her hand while she focused on the red cups in front of them, then pulled her arm back, threw and missed.

“Damn.” Maybe Megan said, as the crowd booed.

Philip gently pushed her out of the way before lining up his shot and throwing his own ball. The yellow bounced between the rims of two cups before ultimately falling off the table.

“Fuck!” Philip grunted angrily.

“Great shot, Phil!” One of the boys laughed along with the crowd. Phil flipped him off before grabbed Tony by the shoulders.

“Come on, kid,” He said, shaking him a little. “You have to make this.”

Tony nodded and gently shrugged off Philip’s hands. He walked up to the table, loud jeers from the crowd following him as he went. He twirled the ball nervously as he looked at the other kids’ cups.

“It’s okay, baby,” The girl from the other team said, puckering her lips. “Don’t worry. No one will be mad at you if you miss.”

Tony glared at the laughing girl before focusing his eyes on the cups again. He tries to imagine the arc of his possible throw; crunches the numbers to figure out how to position his arm and how hard he has to throw. He pulls his arm back, breathes, and throws.

The ball bounces on rim of one…two…three cups before making it into one.

Tony and the crowd alike were shocked and was only reawakened by a happy squeal from Maybe Megan.

“Oh my god, Tony!” She exclaimed as she gave Tony a bear hug. “Yes, Tony!”

“Fuck Yeah!” Philip said. “Let’s play.”

After that, both teams made or missed their shots. Tony only drank his first cup when the other team all made a shot. He grabbed the cup and chugged it down quick, which was a mistake. Instead of the cup being filled up with beer, it was filled with what he believed to be vodka.

“Oh my god…” Tony coughed out. “What was that?”

“Vodka, kid. I thought you partied hardcore.” Philip teased.

They continued to play, and Tony continued to drink; the liquor starting to affect him a lot faster than any beer his father had ever given to him. His head pulsed but didn’t hurt and he couldn’t control the giggles that kept escaping from his chest.

Both sides only had one cup remaining, and the atmosphere was intense. Tony’s team stared intensely at the other team’s thrower and cheered when he missed. Philip quickly grabbed the Ping-Pong but slowly pulled his arm back, threw, and missed. Maybe Megan took his place and piqued his actions, but unlike Philip, made the shot.

The crowd shouted and cheered. Maybe Megan threw her arms with her own cheerful scream. Philip cheered alongside her, picking her up from her waist and twirling her around. Tony would have been cheering with them, happily, but was too busy with losing his balance and falling into the swimming pool.

Tony was taught how to swim when he was seven by private instructors in private swimming areas. He should have been fine…but he was well over being tipsy. The numbing feeling of his head turned into a strong headache. He couldn’t tell which was up or down, and his lungs were too weak to hold his breath.

He was drowning.

_ He was drowning. _

_ “God, my dad is going to be so pissed.” _ Tony thought to himself as his vision started to darken. The last thing that registered in his brain was the sensation of something grabbing him from under his armpits.

“—id. Kid. Kid, can you hear me?”

Tony’s everything hurt, and he didn’t want to answer the voice that had appeared out of nowhere.

_ “Wasn’t I drowning?” _

“Kid!”

Tony groaned as he blinked his eyes open. Once they were opened, he was able to place a dark skinned male to the voice.

“Thank god, kid.” The guy said. “You scared me for a second.”

“’ought I was drowning,” Tony said.

“You were.”

“How…?”

“I pulled you out.” The guy said, Tony finally noticing that the guy was dripping wet. “Come on, let’s go dry you up.”

The guy helped Tony get steady on his feet and led him back inside to the nearest bathroom. Once there he gave Tony one of the decorative towels to dry himself off.

“What’s your name kid?” The guy asked him.

“Tony…Tony Stark,” He said as he used the towel to dry his hair.

“Nice to meet you, Tony. I’m James Rhodes.” James said, holding out his hand for Tony to shake.

“Thanks for…you know,” Tony said as he shook James’ hand. “Saving my life.”

“No problem,” James said.

They sat in silence as Tony continued to try to dry himself until James broke it.

“You hungry?” He asked. “Wanna go get a burger from In-N-Out?”

“Mm…can we go to Wendy’s instead?” Tony asked, hopefully.

“Haha…sure kid,” James said. “Come on. I’ll drive.”


	2. Tony's Amazing New Best Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Rhodey act like they've been best friends since they were born and Tony can't stop embarrassing himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is shorter than that last one but this one is a lot more focused on the new characters (aka the rest of the teen avengers)

“ _God_ , he is so… _insufferable_.”

 

It had been two weeks since Hannah’s party—which was Maybe Megan’s real name (“How did you get _Megan_ from _Hannah_?” Rhodey asked him when Tony referred to her as Maybe Megan. “I was close!” Tony had declared.)—along with Tony’s close encounter with death. It had also been two weeks since he became friends with James Rhodes or, how Tony has come to call him, Rhodey.

 

“What did Rogers do this time?” Rhodey asked, taking a bite from his sandwich.

 

Rhodey was a senior at Homeland High School and was ranked as number two in his class. He wasn’t one for parties but had been at Hannah’s party because a couple of his friends had begged him to attend (mostly because he was the only one with a car). He had steered clear from the alcohol knowing that he was going to have to drive his friends and himself home. Which was lucky for Tony, considering Rhodey was the only one sober enough to react in time to jump in and save the kid.

 

Tony had acted awkwardly around the other boy. He had been very grateful towards the older boy for saving his life and had ate the food that Rhodey had bought for him with happy gusto, but he forced himself to not get attached; had expected that after Rhodey had finished going through his “Good Samaritan” phase he would never see the other boy again. He had been pleasantly surprised when he saw Rhodey waiting for him in the front of their school.

 

Rhodey was Tony’s first actual friend. A friend that complained about Tony’s whining and complaining but made sure that Tony knew he was joking and listened carefully when Tony did come to vent to him. A friend that went out of his way to try and find Tony during their lunches and after school. A friend that actually _wanted_ to be around him because Tony was _Tony._

 

Being around Rhodey, being his _friend_ , filled him with a sense of comfort…a sense of _belonging._

 

“You know that stupid project Coulson assigned, right?” Tony said from where he was using Rhodey’s lap as a pillow. “The one where we have to ‘co-create’ an original piece of artwork?”

 

“Yeah.” Rhodey said through a mouth full of chips.

 

“He’s not letting me put any word into _our_ project,” Tony said, waving his arms around. “And when he _does_ let me put something in, he just rolls his eyes and dismisses it as if it was a shitty idea!”

Rhodey just hummed his sympathy, not wanting to cut Tony in the middle of his rant but still wanting to let Tony know that he was listening.

 

“The dick thinks just because he can paint a couple of realistic paintings and…okay yeah, he is pretty fucking fantastic at that and I can’t draw for shit but…but _still._ ” Tony stressed. “That doesn’t mean that I can’t contribute. The fucking asshole.”

 

“His friends have been a pain in my ass too.” Tony added in.

 

“What?” Rhodey exclaimed, anger showing up in his voice and on his face. “Have those fuckers been bullying you? I’ll kill them for you. You know I would.”

 

 “What? No!” Tony said in a hurry, jumping up from where he was lying to meet Rhodey’s eyes. “No I’m not being bullied.”

 

“I’m just saying that I’m pretty sure that Rogers, like me, has complained about me to his friends.” Tony said.

 

Steve Rogers not only had his teen movie star looks but had some sort of weird posse that was made up of _other_ good looking teenagers to go along with it.

 

In that group was Rogers’ best friend since birth, James Buchanan Barnes. He was around the same in muscle mass to Rogers but was an inch shorter than him and had longer hair. The two of them seemed to share this sort of pact where the two of them had the other’s back, no matter what. The two boys were close, very close.

 

They basically spent their every wakening moment together.

 

But don’t get the wrong idea!

 

Their relationship is strictly No-Homo. No homo-romanticism pretenses between those two, no sir-y.

 

Did you hear the sarcasm?

 

“No homo” his ass, Tony could practically feel the mutual pinning between those two.

 

 _God_ they’re adorable…he hates them.

 

Then there was Thor Odinson. Thor was originally from Norway but he and his family moved to California when he was ten years old. Which explained why his English was so proper.  He had apparently, from what Tony had gotten from eavesdropping on a group of Odinson’s fangirls, met Barnes and Rogers when they were all in the seventh grade. Thor was a part of the JV football team alongside Rogers and seemed to lift weights for fun based on the size of his biceps.

 

Clint Barton was the next one on the list, and the one Tony disliked the least. He and Barton shared the same P.E. and English class. Barton was smart, snarky, and always seemed to be able to keep up with Tony’s rants and sassy comments with his own. He was the only member of the school’s archery team, which was couched by Barton’s adoptive father, Mr. Coulson. Tony felt like he and Barton could have been friends if he had gone to the same middle school that he had gone to. Barton had met and joined the three there.

 

And last but not least, was Natasha Romanov. The girl was around five feet tall but was rumored to be a black belt in every sport that had a belt system and has shown signs of becoming a valuable member to the school’s gymnastics team. She had above average smarts and seemed to be good at figuring anyone’s secrets based on the fact that she was a very quiet and serious person. Romanov was also _very_ scary. She could glare down a grown ass man until he shat his pants, and Tony _sadly_ had her sitting behind him in his Algebra 2 class.

 

“So they might have a bad impression of me.” Tony said.

 

Tony had never spoken to any of them before but he could feel the glares that Thor and Barnes would send his way when they saw him during passing period. He would get chills up his spine caused by the calculating stares from Romanov and Barton would sometimes give him.

 

At first he had understood because Tony was guilty of being protective of Rhodey and would, _maybe_ , cause the locker that belonged to whoever upset Rhodey to explode yellow paint at them when they opened it. Until Rhodey had figured it out and told him to stop, but Tony knew that he had found it just as funny as Tony did. Although Tony was running out of empathy and he was starting to get very, _very_ tired of their shit.

 

“They’re protective of their favorite little American Boy.” Tony said.

 

“You sure you don’t want me to do something?” Rhodey asked one last time.

 

“Yes, Honeybear, I’m sure.” Tony reassured.

 

“Okay.” Rhodey said. He wasn’t completely reassured but he didn’t want to push. “Anyways, I was wondering if you wanted to come over next week to hang out and have dinner. My mom really wants to meet you.”

 

“What? Are we dating or something?” Tony joked his grin full of mirth and warmth. “What is this?”

 

“You wish.” Rhodey said, a grin on his face. “You can’t handle—“ he gestures to his body with his hands and a wiggle—“ _all_ of this.”

 

Tony and Rhodey held each other’s stare, both trying and failing to keep a straight face. They both burst out laughing, loudly and unashamed. Both Tony and and Rhodey having to cling to either the table or to the other in fear of falling over.

 

“Ah…but for reals Tones,” Rhodey gasped out, rubbing the tears that had slipped out from his cheeks. “My mom wants to meet you.”

 

“Yeah…okay.” Tony said. “I’ll come.”

 

“Cool.” Rhodey said, his smile turning into a grin. He then packed up his things when the lunch bell rang. “Come on, I’ll walk you to your next class.”

 

Rhodey’s class was on the opposite side of the school from where Tony’s class was, but Tony didn’t say anything. He quite liked it when Rhodey went all protective mode.

 

////

School came easily to Tony, it always has.

 

He was a curious soul by nature so Tony genuinely loved learning

 

Yes, the fact that he was technically a genius probably helped, not because things came easily to him like most people thought (even though it did) but because his mind was always loud, always _thinking_. If Tony didn’t do anything, if he didn’t keep busy, his usual fidgety movements worsened and he got easily irritated by almost everything.

 

Tony’s brain was like a radio that was constantly changing frequencies. There were so many questions buzzing through his head, so many ideas, so many _voices_ …

 

Things would pop out of the pages of his textbooks like those holograms he wanted to convert from science-fiction to actual reality, which not only helped Tony memorize what they say but made it able for him to _understand_ how and why they worked.

 

Although, being a genius did _not_ make him an athlete.

 

Tony’s next class was Physical Education, which sucked horribly. His so called P.E. teacher was a sadist that made his whole class run in the August heat while he waited under the shade. Tony was not made for the outdoors. He was a soft child baby that was too dependent on A/C and the internet.

 

Today, Tony’s P.E. teacher had decided to make them run laps around the track course until he blew the whistle.

  
Tony wasn’t a runner and he was, embarrassingly, struggling to keep his breathing even. The sun was burning the top of his head and he swore that he could hear the water in the air sizzle. Anthony Edward Stark deeply hated P.E. class.

 

“C’mon Stark!”

 

A body zoomed passed Tony and caused an unforgiving warm breeze to hit his body. He was met with a mischievous grin that was matched with a teasing pair of blue eyes. As the dirty blonde haired culprit jogged backwards in front of him.

 

“Too used to your servants carrying you everywhere?” Clint Barton teased. The guy was effortlessly keeping up; he wasn’t even _sweating_.

 

Tony changed his mind, he completely _despised_ Clint Barton.

 

“Fuck off, Barton.” Tony huffed out.

 

Barton laughed as he did some quick foot work and started to run the correct way and easily left Tony in the dust. Usually that’s the moment the nerdy kid of the Disney movie would slow down with a sigh of defeat while some emotional underdog song played in the back ground which later be followed by a montage of scenes showing the viewers how much said nerdy kid’s life sucked, but this wasn’t any normal nerdy kid. This was Tony Stark and like every other Stark male before him, his greatest flaw was his _pride._

 

Tony dug deep into his body and pulled whatever untouched energy he had to somehow push himself forward. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears, his mouth was starting to taste of iron and he was pretty sure he was in danger of having an asthma attack based on how there was a slight wheeze as he inhaled, but he didn’t care.  

 

He didn’t care because the surprised look he got from Barton made the chances of dying worth it. It was the greatest couple of minutes in Tony’s life. They were both nearing the end of the track and the P.E. teacher had already blown the whistle, notifying everyone that, where ever they were in this lap, meant it was their last one. Which meant that Tony was now racing Barton to the finish line to prove his alpha maleness or something petty like that.

 

Tony, surprisingly was doing an amazing job of keeping up with Barton, even though his lungs were crying. They were neck to neck and the white strip that was supposed to be the finish line was only a couple of feet in front of them. He knew for sure that he would be able to tie with Barton and that was all he wanted. He wanted the other boy to see that he wasn’t afraid of him and stupid little friend group. This was going to show Barton that he and Tony were equals…until Tony tripped and ate shit.

 

He had no idea what he had tripped over. There wasn’t anything in his way to trip on and his shoe laces hadn’t come undone. It just seemed like he had tripped on the universe’s determination to make his life miserable. Tony must have killed a bunch of people in his past life for the universe to hate him as much as it did.

 

Because of his momentum Tony slid after he fell, causing both of his shines to slide on the bumpy, scratchy surface of the track course. After his body had finally stopped, Tony just laid on the ground staring up at the blue sky with Barton’s laugh playing out in the background. His legs stung with pain and his lungs wheezed with every breath he took. Tony just laid there on the track, letting the other students just run around him. He only got up from the ground when the P.E. teacher yelled at him to do so.

 

“Get up, Stark!” He yelled. “Go wash up inside.”

 

Tony sighed as he got up from the ground and winced as he walked to the boy’s locker room, were he cleaned up the bleeding scrapes he had on both of his legs. After he was done doing that he went to his assigned locker, took out his inhaler and took two puffs.

 

Tony didn’t want to go back outside in the heat and face Barton’s teasing so he decided to take a shower and dress up a lot earlier than he was supposed to. He was freshly showered, clothed, and scrolling through his phone when boys started to file back in to the locker room, causing it to smell a lot worse than it originally had. He waited a little while for enough bodies to be in the locker room for him to be able to slip out without being noticed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments will be answered and will be all loved equally


	3. Bruises in Art Class and Heartfelt Moments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhodey's a good friend and Tony doesn't know how to interact with normal people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is for Arthurian maiden (8Daenerys8), Maxeyn, Dewsparkle, starkanium, LimeOfMagicLimo, Koalablu, TheRayneAlchemist. Your guys' comments were what I would read when I would just get the need to give up on this so thanks

"You know, usually people try not to have an asthma attack," Rhodey said as he dug for the extra inhaler he had given him based on the high probability that he would forget his own at home. Rhodey had rushed out of his classroom and to the little tree that Tony had dubbed theirs once the period was over, having gotten a text from the younger boy.

"Whatever," Tony wheezed out, taking the inhaler. He pushed the tiny metal part twice and inhaled the lifesaving medicine. "Barton started it."

Rhodey only sighed as his reply. He dropped his bag on the ground and took his place next to the other boy, not planning to go to his next period based on how to put out his friend seemed to be.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He asked, softly shoving Tony with his shoulder.

"Yeah I'm fine," Tony said. He was fiddling with his inhaler and wouldn't meet Rhodey's eyes. It's been an awful end of the day. Not only did he humiliate himself in front of Barton and the rest of the class, but he had messed up so much that he had had to bother Rhodey to come and save him for the second time since their friendship had begun.

"Come on Tones don't lie to me."

The two of them have only been friends for a brief time, but it had been surprisingly easy for them to fall into sync with each other as if they'd been friends since they were kids. It was the type of friendship that Tony had only ever dreamt of having and god, he was so grateful to have found Rhodey.

Tony clicked his tongue before saying anything. "I'm fine really. It's no big deal. I just fell and started to have problems breathing. It's all fixed now."

"You're not okay," Rhodey said with a frown on his lips. He grabbed Tony's shoulder and tried to turn the boy to look at him. "This is bothering you for some reason. Why is that?"

 "It's nothing!" Tony said as he shrugged off Rhodey's hand and gave him an easy-going grin.

"Everything is fine!" Tony said as he pushed himself up from the ground. He crossed his arms over his chest, shifted his weight to one knee as he smirked confidently at the senior. "Why should I care if Steve and his little team of teen movie clichés like me or not. I'm Tony Stark, certified genius. I don't care."

Rhodey looked up at Tony giving him a look that was already specifically for Tony's bullshit. He knew that this was bothering Tony, but he also knew that Tony would try his hardest to not "burden" him with it.

 "Okay, come on," Rhodey said as he got up. They only had two remaining classes for the day, but Rhodey could tell that Tony didn't feel like going back and to be honest, neither did he.  "Let's go."

"What? Where are you going?" Tony said as he watched his friend walk over to the school fence and threw his backpack over it before he started to climb it.

"Skipping," Rhodey grunted at the impact with the ground. "Come on, throw over your backpack."

"Wait…really?" Tony scrambled over to the fence, following Rhodey's lead. "Honeybear this is the greatest plan you've ever come up with. Where are we going? Across town? The arcade? A secret underground dance-off?"

Rhodey chuckled. "You watch too many 80's movies, Tones. We're heading to my house, come on."

////

Rhodey only lived a couple of blocks away from the school with his single mother and twelve-year-old sister. On the way, Rhodey hold told him that his parents had divorced when he was young and that Mrs. Rhodes had worked her ass off until she managed to finish her degree in night school and now worked as a proud nurse.

"Today's her day off though," Rhodey said. "She was planning on meeting you later this week by taking us out to a movie or something like I told you earlier."

"Will she be okay with me coming over today?" Tony asked, tripping a little as he tried to keep up with Rhodey's longer strides.

"She's been dying to meet you. I don't see why it wouldn't be okay."

It didn’t take them long to arrive at a small but a well-loved home with a slightly overgrown lawn, a welcome sign hanging on the front door, and a pink bike leaning against the garage door. It looked nothing like Tony’s own home.

He instantly loved it.

“Mom!” Rhodey called out as he opened the door. “I’m home! I brought a friend with me.”

“In the kitchen, Honey!” A voice called out to them as Rhodey instructed Tony where to stash his backpack. “You didn’t tell me that you had a short day today.”

Tony followed Rhodey into a small kitchen that was filled with the most incredible smell Tony has ever smelt in his _life._ It was entirely different for the dishes his parents’ chiefs would make for family dinners. The mixture of spices and loving feeling Mrs. Rhodes’ singing gave the room reminded him of Saturdays when the chiefs have the day off, and Jarvis is stuck having to make Tony food.

“Mom this is Tony,” Rhodey said as he walked up to the shorter woman and kissed her on the cheek. “Tones, this is my mom.”

“It’s so nice to meet you, Tony!” Rhodey’s mom put down the half-peeled potato, that she was going to use to make mash potatoes, and quickly washed her hands before she grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him in for a big hug. “I’ve heard so much about you from James.”

“Uh,” Tony said his mind and natural charm, gone from the sudden intimate touch. He quickly managed to collect himself and wrapped his arms around the older woman. “It’s a real pleasure to meet you too Mrs. Rhodes.”

He gently pulled away from the hug and happily gave Mrs. Rhodes his perfect charming smile.

“You’re just as beautiful as I imagined you to be whenever Rhodey told me stories about you.”

“Oh you,” Mrs. Rhodes’ gave a bashful giggle as Rhodey rolled his eyes at Tony from behind her. “I do remember James telling me that you were a sweet talker.”

Tony bashfully held up his hands up in surrender. “Guilty.”

Rhodey’s mom quickly put them to work to help get dinner ready, showing Tony how to correctly peel the rest of the potatoes and told him embarrassing stories about her “little James.” Emilia, Rhodey’s little sister, soon joined in the fun by telling him about the time Rhodey had slipped in Costco when they were racing towards one of those leaning chairs they had on display.

The embarrassment of the day started to fade away as Tony ate Mrs. Rhodes delicious food and laughed at the stories and jokes that the close knitted family that happily shared with him. 

It was no surprise that the Rhodes household was becoming Tony’s second favorite place in the world.

////

Tony was starting to feel like Mr. Coulson had it in for him. It's been little over a week since he and Rogers had turned in their first collaboration (a clay vase that Tony had sculpted, and Rogers had painted with tiny, painstaking detail) for this semester. The plan was to deal with each other long enough for them to finish that stupid thing and then move on to a new

That was supposed to be three in-class assignments ago. Coulson kept pairing them together while the rest of the class got to mingle.

"We have a bone to pick with you Coulson," Tony said as he and Rodgers decided to confront the man together. "What is going on in that head—"

"What Stark is trying to say is," Steve interrupted him, placing his hand in front of Tony's face for emphasis. "We were wondering why you keep pairing us together. We were hoping to get—"

"We were hoping to get away from each other," Tony finished for him, feeling peeved about getting interrupted earlier.

"New partners," Steve grumbled, glaring at Tony from the corner of eyes.

"Well Mr. Stark, Steve," Mr. Coulson said, not even bothering to look away from his computer where he was undoubtedly looking at his facebook. "You both clash, yes, but you both make amazing artwork when you're not, and I'm hoping that one of your works will win a place at the county's art fair."

"We never agreed to that," Tony said, crossing his arms and glaring at Coulson down his nose like he's seen his father do during his business meetings with the board members.

"All students are required to participate, Mr. Stark. It was on the syllabus," Coulson said, still not looking up from his computer.

“I might have to agree with Stark here Mr. Coulson,” Steve said. “We might have a chance at winning, but that still doesn’t seem to be a sound reason to force us to work together.”

Coulson sighed as if he was in great pain from having the two of them there. “You two are constantly arguing, glaring, and angry with each other no matter if you two are in the same group, seated on different ends of the classroom, or in different classrooms which makes you both blind to the fact that you make an amazing team. So, no Mr. Rogers, Mr. Stark, I will not be assigning you two to new partners.”

Tony loudly groaned while Rogers nodded respectfully before they both returned to the large canvas that they were assigned. Honestly, yes maybe they worked well together, their vase and in-class assignments came out a hundred times better than the shit that had come out of their classmates' heads. Tony had accepted that, silently in his head during a late all-nighter he was having in his lab (the one garage that his dad wasn't using to store his cars in), but that doesn't mean that Steve Rogers had just magically stopped being annoying.

Tony isn't sure how they were able to find something to argue about from Coulson's desk to their canvas, but he knows for a fact that Rogers is the one that started the whole thing.

"Can you just shut up for once in your life, Stark?" Steve yelled, Tony finally having caused him to lose his temper. Tony always felt a sort of pride every time he managed to do it.

"And actively give you what you want? Never."

Rogers stretched out his hands in front of him as if going to try to choke Tony as his face shifted to one of complete anger, his cheeks turning a little red.

“You think you’re so much better than everyone else,” He dropped his hands to his side, having thought better than to murder a classmate but happily kept glaring at him. “Just because you have a little more money than the rest of us.”

“No that’s not true,” Tony said. His blood was boiling at this point from this douche bags superiority complex. “I’m also pretty sure that I’m smart than your dumbass!”

Tony quickly turned and grabbed a random paint tube and squeezed it onto Steve’s white shirt while he got splashed by dirty pain water that he hadn’t noticed Rogers had seized at the same time. His glasses, which he had stupidly chosen to wear today, were smudged with water droplets making it impossible to see Rogers fist coming towards his face.

It hurt like a bitch. The impact of the punch made Tony stumble backward into a desk, but he didn’t waste any time on retaliating. Tony managed to find his footing and pushed off the desk and towards the blonde boy, using his speed and Steve’s shock to his advantage and brought Rogers to the ground. He only managed to get a punch of his own in before Mr. Coulson came in and managed to separate them.

“Enough! ENOUGH!” Mr. Coulson yelled as he stayed In between them when he saw Steve try to go after Tony again. He grabbed Tony and Rogers by the back of their shirts and started to drag them out of the classroom. “To the Principal’s office, now!”

////

The school's principal is one scary ass man. Tony has only ever met him once before when he had gotten in an argument with his math teacher who he had argued with over the fact that he was dedicated points on a test for solving the problems "the wrong way." Principal Fury had sided with him in the end and had given Tony a fair punishment for calling his teacher an "asshole."

Nick Fury was harsh but fair.

"Nick," Tony grinning as he entered the principal's office, although his smile wasn't as charming with the black eye that was starting to form and now slightly crooked glasses. "It's been so long. Have you done something new with the place?"

Tony only got an unamused look.

"It's Principal Fury to you, Mr. Stark," the one-eyed man said as Steve and Tony were seated on the two uncomfortable chairs that were in front of his desk. "Now which one of you wants to explain to me why you two thought it was a good idea to fight in my school?"

Tony and Steve spent the rest of the period trying to blame the other for what had happened, but in the end, Principal Fury decided not to suspend them. Instead, he was going to make them do the two things they hate the most, spend more time after school by giving them community service and make them spend time with each other by giving them a month's worth of lunch hour detention.

Principal Fury was fair but harsh. (The fact that Tony's family had donated money to the school might have also helped his situation.)

"Starting tomorrow," Fury said as he started to sign the paperwork for their permanent files. "You two will go to room 61B during your lunch hour for detention and then when school is over you will report to the library for community service. Now get out of my office and go back to class."

////

"You are such an idiot," Rhodey said as he grabbed Tony's face and moved it back and forth to study his new black eye. "First you fall for that other kid's taunting, and now you got yourself a month's worth of detention for doing that stupid thing with Rogers. I thought you were supposed to be a ‘certified genius.'"

"Okay, I get it," Tony slapped Rhodey's hands away and put his now crooked glasses (and dang it these were his favorite ones) back on. "Bad Tony. Bad."

Loud teenagers were complaining about their classes and sharing the newest gossip and drama both in and out of their respective friend groups. It was a regular lunch for everyone else except for Tony had to explain to his best friend why he was sporting a new black eye and why he wouldn't be able to hang out with him during lunch for the rest of the month. It was their last lunch together before Tony's detention tomorrow, and they had met under their usual tree.  

"I don't think you do," Rhodey was angry, angry and frustrated from what Tony had gotten from his tone of voice and how he was slowly starting to yell. "Tony you could have gotten suspended. You could’ve gotten hurt. This could have convinced your parents to send you back to private school."

“Because you’re my _friend_ Tony!” Rhodey yelled, getting so frustrated with Tony that he shoved him a bit. Tony’s response was to cross his arms over his chest and gave his back to Rhodey.

“Get that through your head. I don’t know why you think that I don’t care. You don’t tell me anything, even though I know this thing with those group of kids is bothering you or…or anything else that might be bothering you. You matter to me, Tony. You are my _best friend_. How do you think I would feel if you’re parents forced you to move? It might be hard to believe, but I would miss you.”

Tony didn’t say anything for a while after that. The silence was thick between the two best friends was out but was unnoticed by the rest of the school population. Their drama was drowned out by the noise the other hundreds of kids were making.

“I…I would miss you too,” Tony said, his voice barely a whisper, but didn’t turn around to look at Rhodey. “I…I’m sorry.”

Rhodey sighed, his whole body slumping tiredly. “You’re brilliant Tony, but you keep doing things and trying to go through things all by yourself when you don’t have to. Back when we first met, you told me that you decided to come to this school because you felt like you had no one to have your back but now, now you have me. I’m _right here_.”

“I know—”

“It sure doesn’t seem like it,” Rhodey grumbled.

“Look, just, okay I’m sorry. It’s just,” Tony let out a groan of frustration before he continued. “I’ve never really had an actual friend before, except for my family butler, Jarvis. Now I have you, and you seem to like me and actually  _want_ to be my friend. So, I guess I'm just trying to say that…this is new…to me.”

Rhodey sighed again (he seemed to be doing that a lot recently), but this time Rhodey wrapped his arm around Tony’s shoulders and pulled him closer.

“It’s okay,” Rhodey said. “I know you’re new to this whole thing. I mean you’re interacting with normal none rich people for the first time, and on top of that, you’re a high school freshman. It’s no wonder you have no friends your age.”

“Hey!” Tony jokingly objected and lightly shoved him. “What do you mean no friends my age? I have you.”

“Dude, I’m three years older than you,” Rhodey grinned at the younger teen and shifted his one-armed hug to a light choke hold so he could easily give Tony a noogie. “It’s no wonder I feel like I’m taking care of a kid sometimes.”

“Okay, okay, I give!” Tony laughed as he tried to pull Rhodey’s arms away. Rhodey laughed along and finally let go of a much happier Tony Stark. “Can we eat now? This is my last lunch as a free man for a while.”

They both looked at their lunch trays that held what their schools liked to pass off as “food.” The spaghetti looked more like a bowl of soup than anything else, and Tony swore he could see some mold growing on the mixed vegetables.

“How about we make my last meal at that pizza place near the school,” Tony said.

“Good idea.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I'm not dead, and I finally managed to update this story before summer ended AND before we hit the year mark since last time I updated. I wanna say thanks to everyone that stuck around this long and to everyone that left a comment on the last chapter. You guys were the only reason why I managed to finish this chapter. Thanks for reading!


	4. The Cliche 80's Movie Group of Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A group of teens and a sudden realization

Steve had been a sickly and small kid while growing up. He used to be the shortest boy of his grade in every new school he had moved to and had the constant threat of an allergy-based asthma attack looming over him. Which made it no surprise that he was the favorite to pick on for bullies of almost every state his parents had been stationed at. That didn't mean that Steve ever went down without a fight, even going as far as starting most of the fights himself. Bucky used to say that Steve reminded him of a yappy chihuahua that thought he was bigger than he was.

That was until the seventh grade when, as Clint liked to put it, "Steve made puberty his bitch."

Steve remembered how his whole body had ached during the beginning of the summer before seventh grade and how muscle started to appear on his slender form. Then, like magic, Steve had fewer moments of wheezing and having trouble breathing. He was able to run, swim, or day any sort of physical activity without immediately coming close to death, and most importantly he finally had the power to stop the bullies.

Which was what he did…until today, where he noticed that he, accidentally, might have, possibly, turned into one.

"The first fight of your high school career. I'm impressed," Bucky was holding the ziplock bag the school nurse had given to him against the bump on the back of Steve's head that he had gotten when his head connected with the floor when Stark had tackled him to the ground. "I thought this would have happened a lot sooner in the year."

"Can't believe Mr. ‘I don't like bullies' beat up the nerdy rich kid," Clint said as he opened a bag of hot Cheetos. Steve had met up with his friends at their usual lunch table inside the cafeteria where they were safe from the weird black bugs that sometimes flew too close to students' faces. "It's just like they said. You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

"It really was a dick move, Steve," Natasha said, not even bothering to look up from spreading mayo onto the thing that the school said was a ham sub.

Steve hunched over the lunch table and groaned as he hid his face in his hands. "I knoooow! I don't know what happened. I don't even know why we started to argue. I feel so bad."

"I do not know why you hate Tony so much," Thor said. He crushed up the now empty soda can in his hands, wound back his arm, threw it towards the garbage can, and missed. Thor whined out a "dammit" before he got up to go throw it away properly.

"I think he's funny from all those tales Clint tells us," Thor yelled over his shoulder at him.

"I don't hate him," Steve said. He moved away from Bucky's hand when the ice was finally starting to get too uncomfortably cold. He smiled and gave Bucky a shy "thanks" as he took back the bag of ice (his heart raced a little when his fingers brushed against his best friend's hand).

"What do you mean?" Bucky laughed. "You sound like you hate him every time you complain about him."

"Either that or you have a massive crush on him," Clint said. He was about to snicker at his own joke, but it quickly turned into a painful hiss as Bucky's He rubbed his shin, where Bucky's dirty converse had made contact and met Bucky's glare with his own.

"Shut up Clint," Steve said rolling his eyes at the dirty blonde, failing to notice the little interaction between Bucky and Clint. "I don't have a crush on Tony, but I don't hate him. I actually kind of admire him."

And it was the truth, Steve did admire Tony Stark. Tony was insanely smart. Steve would hear stories about how he would easily be able to understand whatever was being said in his biology class and Algebra 2 class. How confidently he would point out when a teacher was wrong and be completely right about it. By the first round of tests the teachers had given them, Tony had already secured his place as valedictorian of their class (and okay, Steve had to begrudgingly admit that Tony was kind of cute). Other than that Steve didn't really know much about the rich kid, and he really couldn't pinpoint exactly what made him start to dislike the other boy.

Maybe it was the way that he walked around the school with a sort of air that just said, "I'm better than you." Perhaps it was the way he would flaunt how much money his family had by having his driver drop him off at school with some car that Steve was sure that cost more than all the money his parents had saved up for the past four years. Or maybe it was the way that Tony knew how to make him mad and how he seemed to enjoy it.

"He just gets on my nerves," Steve said. "I don't know why."

"You know, it's said that when two people can't stand each other, it's because they're pretty similar to each other," Natasha took a bite out of her sandwich and looked at Steve right in the eye as if she just hadn't just basically insulted him.

"What?" Steve spluttered in indignation. "I am nothing like him."

Natasha only hummed in response, making it clear to Steve that she didn't believe him.

"I totally agree with Steve, Nat. They're nothing alike," Clint smirked. "Stark's funnier."

"Haha," Steve jokingly glared at him and chucked a grape at the other blonde. Clint easily caught it in his mouth.

Steve and friends eventually dropped the subject and instead started to joke and enjoy each other's presences. That was until the school bell rang to signify lunch was over. They were packing up and gathering their trash. Clint was talking about a hang out he was planning to have when he trailed off.

"Clint? What's wrong? What are you looking at?" Steve turned to look over his shoulder and what he saw made his breath hitch in his throat.

Passing by the large windows that lined the cafeteria was Tony Stark with broken glasses and a black eye that looked much worse than it did when they were talking to Principal Fury an hour ago. The rich teen was halfheartedly slapping away the hands of the senior they've seen Tony hang out with. A massive wave of guilt rushed through Steve's body. It only worsened when Tony's friend saw that he was watching them and immediately put an arm around the younger teen and hurried them away, a look full of hatred on his face as he did.

"Fuck Stevie," He heard Bucky say next to him. Steve didn't have to look back and checking if Thor and Natasha had seen it too. He could feel their eyes burning into his back. "You never told us how bad you had hurt him."

They hadn't asked either considering how the only evidence Steve had of being in a fight was this word, the bump on his head, and his now stained shirt.

"I…I didn't realize…" Steve trailed off as a sick feeling in his stomach had settled.

Steve knew what Clint had said had been a joke and he had always pushed the thought away because he couldn’t be what he hates most in the world, but he was.

Steve had turned into the bully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whaaat? Another update so soon after the last one?? Yeah I know I'm surprised too but I felt like this part was important and was enough to be its own chapter even if it was shorter than I'm usually comfortable with.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are very much appreciated


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